Uzumaki Tears: Mothers Day
by TJchaos
Summary: The third and final story in my Uzumaki Tears stories, focusing on Naruto and Mothers Day.  Rated 'M' for a bit of profanity and a harsh-ish theme or two, mostly just to stay on the safe side of things.


Part 3:

** Disclaimer - As many others have stated I make no claims regarding the ownership of 'Naruto' outside of my DVD and Manga collection. **

A/N: Sorry for the delay, Kishmoto's revelations about circumstances of Naruto's birth threw much of what I originally wrote here out the window. That severely lessened the emotional impact I was hoping to achieve with this story. I tried to salvage some of the original story but feel that I lost what I was hoping this story was going to be. Actually it's been mostly complete for more than a year now as I poked it a mess of times trying to improve it to my satisfaction. Unfortunately I just don't see it getting any better and although I have been working on other stories this one has caused something of a jam across the board since I promised myself that I wouldn't post anything else until this one was finished. Hopefully now I can get back to proper work on the other hanging stories of mine.

Oh Yeah, please forgive any spelling or grammar errors I only gave this one a quick going over for editing.

Uzumaki Tears: Mothers Day

Naruto stood before Tsunade's desk. He was a little nervous, the past few months had been a little rough for him the few times he had been in this position before. His uneasiness wasn't helped at all by the fact that Tsunade had summoned him and only him this time. Although it was now getting close to the middle of May and Naruto was feeling that everyone was finally forgetting about Valentines Day he was still hesitant around the Hokage. The 5th eyed him intently as she fiddled with a folder on her desk. After a few moments of tense silence she sighed.

"This is all I can do for you right now. It's a few days early but happy Mothers Day." She said softly as she pulled what looked like a rectangular piece of white paper out of the folder and handed it to him.

"Mothers Day?" He stated, falling silent as he took the rectangle.

Naruto knew as soon as he touched it that it was a photograph. He trembled slightly as he turned it over. A smiling woman looked back at him from the photograph. She had red hair that was so long that the photograph didn't capture all of it since the photograph stopped at her waist. She also had bright violet eyes that looked strangely familiar to him.

"Yes Mothers Day." Tsunade replied.

"Is this…?" He started to ask.

"Yes, that is your mother. I can't tell you her name right now and you can't go around showing or telling anyone about this picture. I can tell you that you are in many ways a lot like the way she was.

Naruto stood there in shock his eyes unable to look away from the photograph. He never noticed Tsunade get up and approach him until she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly.

-ooo-

A few days later in Hinata sighed sadly as she softly placed a few flowers on her mothers grave. She did this every mothers day, always early in the morning so she could be alone.

"I miss you mother." She whispered just before turning and leaving.

She spent the rest of the morning remembering her mother. As usual for this day she found herself pulling out a few of the older family photo albums from their almost hidden place among many other neglected books on a bookshelf in a little used study. A soft smile graced her face as she looked through the many pictures, from her parents wedding through to the time of her sisters birth. She did this every year and to this day she was still surprised to see the older pictures of her father smiling. With a final quiet sigh, she put the albums back and decided that she would eat lunch out, somewhere, anywhere other than home. She wandered towards the area where there was a concentration of eating establishments and passed Ichiraku's. She paused for a moment and thought of Naruto and the pain he found in his search for his mothers name.

'_I wonder if he even knows about Mothers Day.'_ She thought to herself as she immediately decided to postpone lunch and check on her friend.

-ooo-

Hinata steeled herself and with a deep breath she knocked on his door. Although actually rather soft the knocking sound seemed to be extremely loud to her. She fidgeted for a moment and was thinking about turning to leave when the door opened. Naruto peeked out and looked at her with a puzzled expression.

"Hinata?" He said with a tinge of nervousness.

"Naruto-kun. May I come in?" She asked.

"Um…" He paused and gave a quick glance back into his apartment. "I guess so. As long as you promise not to go into the other room, it's something of a mess. Actually I think minor semi-sentient disaster area might be a better description."

"You have my word. Wait, semi-sentient?" She giggled as he opened the door.

"Well Sakura swears the room is trying to kill her. She's gotten tangled up in it a few times when she's stopped by to drag me off to missions. She blames me of course, that usually hurts me more than the room has hurt her though."

Hinata followed Naruto into his kitchen area, giving a wary glance to the door leading to the other room and he offered her the only chair as he turned back to his hot plate that had a bubbling pot on it. Hinata's breath caught in her throat as she saw a photograph of a beautiful young women in a nice frame on his table. There was a small vase next to the frame with a single fresh red rose in it. She hadn't actually seen Naruto since Valentines day. Seeing such a picture now made her question her decision not to seek him out sooner. She had been ecstatic when she had received the six roses from him for White day, even if they were only pink roses and not the red ones she desperately wished to receive some day. She had then been surprised to find out then that he had actually been on a mission to Suna. Although he had returned weeks ago, between their missions and training she simply hadn't had a chance to find him to thank him for the flowers. She was even more surprised to later find out that he had only given flowers to her, Anko of all people, Tsunade and some for his mother that were left at the memorial stone. Kurenai had told her it'd probably be a good idea not to let anyone else know about the flowers he had given her. As she looked at the vaguely familiar looking red haired woman's picture she remembered talking to Ino and finding out that something had probably happened between Shikamaru and that blond Suna kunoichi during White day while he was on the mission with Naruto. Her heart rate increased as she thought about the possibility that maybe Naruto had found a girlfriend in Suna like Shikamaru seemed to have.

"N-Naruto-kun…who is this a picture of?"

Naruto stopped stirring the pot of cooking instant ramen and froze for a moment before he slowly turned to look at Hinata. She thought she heard him utter a soft curse before he turned but even with her sharp ears she wasn't sure. She was nearly floored to actually see a strange sort of nervous fear in his eyes.

"Well I was told that I'm not really supposed to talk about her or even show that picture to anyone. I can't really say much anyway though, I don't even know her name yet."

Hinata's unease vanished and she instantly became puzzled. She looked at the picture, there was something about the woman's eyes and smile. She looked back to Naruto, yes despite their slightly different color the way her eyes seemed to dance and that smile were Narutos. Not his typical smile, no it was one of his rarer and softer smiles that she had only seen a few times. Suddenly she realized.

"She is your mother isn't she?" She stated as Naruto looked at her in shock.

"Please don't tell anyone. Granny Tsunade told me to basically keep that picture a secret." She could almost feel him begging her with his eyes.

Naruto looked at her nervously. He hadn't had the picture for more than a few days and already he had screwed up. Tsunade was going to kill him he started thinking until he thought that even worse, she would try to take the picture away from him. Naruto looked at the precious picture for a moment before looking back to Hinata, his eyes pleading even more than they had a moment before.

"Naruto, your secret is safe with me." Hinata stated softly.

"Thanks. You know sometimes I think that you're just about the best friend I have. You're the easiest person to talk to I know, possibly the only one who ever really listens to me."

Hinata's eyes grew wide and her cheeks flushed at his words. She quickly looked down although he had turned back to the pot as it had started to bubble over and hadn't seen her reaction to his words. As she peeked back up, relieved to see he had turned back to the ramen her eyes locked onto the picture. There was something familiar about the woman. The strange sense of familiarity became stronger the longer she looked at the picture. With a sharp intake of her breath Hinatas eyes grew wide. She was certain she had seen a picture of this woman in one of her family albums this morning. Naruto turned to look at her after hearing that quick gasp. He was surprised to see Hinata nearly bolt out of the chair.

"N-Naruto-kun, I just remembered something I have to do. I-I apologize but I have to run. Th-Thank you for the flowers they were the best gift I've ever received." Hinata stated as she bowed, turned and nearly ran out the door, leaving a rather puzzled Naruto behind.

"Man, she's a great friend but that girl is weird." He muttered as he turned back to his instant ramen.

Before she knew it Hinata found herself home. She went straight to the shelf where the family photo albums were stored and pulled out one of the older ones. Although she had really only skimmed though this particular one relatively quickly earlier that morning, she had poured over this photo album many times when she was younger since it had the largest number of pictures of her mother. As she got older she looked at it less and less, until finally taking it out only on Mothers Day. She simply had not wanted to torment herself any more over her loss. Flipping through the pages for the second time this day it didn't take her very long to get to the section of pictures from when her mother was pregnant with her. There were several pictures from the hospital and Hinata easily identified a few other women in some of the pictures as the mothers to a few of her fellow 'Rookie Nine'. Although most of those showed the women with their new babies since Hinata was the youngest of the 'Rookie 9'. There were also some women that were the mothers of some of her academy classmates that hadn't become ninja. Near the end of the hospital pictures she found a picture of her mother with the same woman that Naruto claimed to be his mother. The red haired women was noticeably larger than Hinata's mother, which made sense since Naruto was a little more than two and a half months older than she was. Snapping the album shut she held it tightly as she headed off to her fathers study. Moments later Hiashi looked up, slightly surprised when Hinata entered immediately after knocking. It was rare that she would initiate an audience with him in his study and she had never before entered without him answering a knock first.

"Father, I was hoping you could identify someone in one of the family photo albums for me." She asked softly.

"Possibly, let me see who." He said, overcome by curiosity over what was driving his daughter, there was something to her tone of voice he rarely heard.

Hinata walked over to his desk and quickly found the picture she had located earlier.

"This woman with the red hair."

"Ah, yes Namikaze Kushina, quite a talented kunoichi." Hiashi stated as his heart skipped a beat.

"Na-Na-Namikaze?" Hinata's voice shook. "As in Namikaze Minato the Fourth Hokage?"

"Yes, she was his wife."

Hinata went very pale and her hands trembled slightly.

"Do you know what happened to her?" Hinata asked.

"She was one of the casualties of the Kyuubi attack. A real shame since she was pregnant at the time. It was a great loss for Konoha to lose not only the Fourth but his wife and unborn child as well. I did not know her very well though, she was more of a casual associate of your mothers. Although her pregnancy was a couple of months or so ahead of your mothers with you, they met at the doctors office and became casual friends. Why do you ask?" Hiashi stated as he skillfully lied to his daughter.

Hinata hesitated for a moment, something seemed odd about his answer but her heart was racing and she ignored whatever it was.

"I, I…" She paused, closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath before continuing. "I do not believe I can say father."

"Excuse me?" Hiashi asked, his voice reflexively growing slightly colder as he frowned and became puzzled.

"I am not sure. I must take my leave of you now." Hinata said, giving her father a deep bow before she picked up the album and quickly turned to leave his office.

"Hinata wait." Hiashi said.

"Yes father?"

"I understand this may place you in a difficult position but if in any way this can possibly affect the Hyuga you may have to tell me what you know. So be very careful with what you are doing."

"I don't believe I will be able to say anything if my suspicions are confirmed. I seem to have stumbled upon a State Secret." She replied quietly as her eyes dropped to the floor and she turned to quickly leave the room.

Her father sighed, rather loudly for him. It was rather obvious to him that his daughter had discovered that not only was the Fourth Hokage's child still alive but that he was one of her friends. Hiashi knew of his daughters attraction to the young man and often worried that never voicing any objections to that attraction would make people wonder why he never verbally criticized the loud blond. He was relatively certain that those who did wonder usually came to the conclusion that Naruto had earned a degree of respect from the Hyuga Clan Head during those famous chuunin exams years ago. Although Hiashi never discussed it, he did leave some subtle false clues that was the exact reason why he never objected to the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. As an expert on reading people he was certain that nobody even suspected that he knew that Naruto was the son of the Fourth Hokage. He frowned as he thought of his daughter trying to hide that knowledge. After a few moments he sighed again, whatever happened would be dealt with and he would not hesitate to gain any advantage he could garner from this for his clan.

Hinata felt her heart beating fast. She was rather surprised that she had said that to her father but it was the truth. If her suspicions were confirmed she would tell no one, not even her father. She quickly left the Hyuga estate and headed for the Hokage tower.

-ooo-

Hinata clutched the photo album to her chest as she stood before Tsunade and looked at her nervously. The Hokage looked back, slightly confused as to why Hinata had even requested a private meeting with no notice as well.

"I'm sorry Hinata but I don't have all day, what is the problem." Tsunade stated as she looked at the clock.

"My apologies Godaime Hokage sama but I am not exactly sure how to begin. I believe I have discovered something very secret concerning a friend and I do not know how to proceed."

Tsunade looked at the young woman and began to have a bad feeling about this conversation.

"Please continue."

Hinata stepped to Tsunade's desk, lay the photo album down, opened it and quickly flipped the pages until page with the picture of her mother with Kushina was revealed.

"It's about Namikaze Kushina." Hinata said softly.

"Damn." Tsunade uttered as her eyes locked onto the picture.

"I visited Naruto unannounced earlier. I wished to thank him for the flowers he had given me on White Day and I was concerned about how he was handling Mothers Day. I didn't know if he was even aware of Mothers Day but after his reaction on the subject of his mother on Valentines Day. I wanted to make sure he knew he had friends he could talk to if he wished. I noticed the picture you gave him and deduced that it was his mother. He was upset that I even saw it and he made me promise not to tell anyone about it and other than you right now I have not and will not. I was hoping you could explain why he must not know about his parents Kushina and…" Hinata paused to stare intently at the floor. "Minato."

"Damn." Tsunade muttered again. "Hinata, first let me assure you that keeping this secret is for his protection. While I do not agree with some of the Sandaime's decisions regarding Naruto I do believe he made the right choice in hiding Narutos relationship to the Fourth. Your generation doesn't really know just how badly Konoha was weakened by the attack of the Kyuubi. At the time the Sandaime didn't believe that Naruto could be protected from Iwa if they discovered that he was the Fourth Hokages son. Iwa suffered greatly from Namikaze Minatos actions in the last great shinobi war. If they suspected that Naruto was the son of the Fourth they would have done everything in their power to assassinate him, possibly going as far as declaring full outright war on Konoha again. Their entire village was extremely afraid of the Fourth and without him here to counter them they would have stopped at nothing to eliminate any child of his. According to the reports I read there were actually a dozen Iwa spies captured here in the village in the year or so after the Kyuubi attack. Each and every single one of them was here trying to find out exactly what happened to Kushina and her baby. Many records were altered and a lot of fake evidence showing that her child died with her during the attack was planted, all to protect Naruto. There was also a great deal of fear here in the village that if Naruto was killed at an early age it would have immediately released the Kyuubi. It was thought at the time that at least a decade was needed for the soul or lifeforce or whatever the damn things spirit is of the demon fox to bond with Naruto enough to guarantee it's death if Naruto were to die, even if for something like the Kyuubi such a death would be temporary. To this day both Jiraiya and myself have doubts that any amount of time would have tied the two together enough to guarantee even a short death of the Nine Tails."

"He's going to hate me." Hinata said in a small voice.

"What?" Tsunade asked.

"Naruto. He's going to hate me. I won't be able to hide the fact that I know his mothers name from him and I won't be able to tell him. He's going to hate me." She continued in the small voice as she felt tears well up in her eyes.

"Hinata, stop. He won't hate you. He might be a little angry with you and very angry with me but he won't hate you." Tsunade said in a soft reassuring voice.

"But.."

"Stop. Come on we are going to see him right now and straighten this out." Tsunade stated as she quickly got up and practically dragged Hinata out of the tower, giving her assistants practically no explanation as to what was going on.

-ooo-

A short time later a grim Tsunade and nervous Hinata were in Naruto's apartment.

"Naruto to give you something of an idea of just how serious things were when the Kyuubi attacked I can tell you the official 'secret' story about how she died if you really want to know." Tsunade said.

"She died during the damn fox's attack right?"

"Well yes, sort of but that's only part of it. Hinata here discovered who your mother was because your mother and her mother became acquaintances during their pregnancies. Although your birthday is October 10th and Hinata's is the 27th of December."

"O.K. So what's the big deal." Naruto asked slightly annoyed.

"That doesn't seem to be that critical Godaime Tsunade-sama." Hinata said.

Tsunade looked at the two young shinobi sadly. This was something she had hoped to never share with Naruto.

"This isn't something easy to know Naruto, are you certain you want to? I'm only willing to give you this information so that you will have an idea of just how critical it is for me to keep other information from you. This will not tell you the identity of your mother but it may give you a small idea of what she was like."

Naruto sat there quietly for a few moments. Something was bothering Tsunade greatly about this. That told him that whatever it was it certainly wasn't going to be pleasant. Still it would be something and the young mans desire to know more about his parents was beginning to consume him. He had spent far too many nights lying in bed in the darkness wondering what they were like. There was no way he could possibly not take what Tsunade was offering.

"Yeah, it'll drive me crazy if you don't tell me." He finally said in a rough voice.

"Well the official 'secret' story is that the Yondaime wasn't able to kill the fox and he needed a new born infant with its umbilical cord still attached in order to properly seal the demon. The hospital had been evacuated long before the fox reached Konoha. Your mother though had not evacuated with the others. She had been taken there just prior to the attack by the Nine Tails. She had been the victim of..." Tsunade paused for a moment as she looked at Naruto sadly. "A victim of a strange jutsu, something that basically killed her but she managed to hang on long enough for you to survive. She was an incredibly strong women. She knew what the Fourth needed and officially she was the one who convinced him to take you in order to save the village."

"What? That doesn't make any sense to me!" Narutos voice began to rise.

"Calm down."

"I don't understand!"

Tsunade sighed.

"Come with me." The Hokage said as she stood and left her office.

-ooo-

Tsunade led Naruto and Hinata out of the village. They traveled a good distance into the forest that surrounded Konoha until they reached a small clearing. In the center of the clearing was a pale stone obelisk. It was a bit more than three meters high and less than a meter wide at its base. Inscribed on the surface facing them was a white spiral that matched the one Naruto wore on his sleeve. Naruto peered curiously at the stone but saw no other markings.

"That cave over there is actually where you were born Naruto, that much I assure you is true. According to the official 'secret' report, during the middle of the attack your mother performed an emergency C-section on herself with you being about a month pre-mature so that the Yondaime could seal the fox into you. That wasn't supposed to happen according to the plan, originally there were supposed to be a couple of medics to do the actual procedure but it seems that they were both killed before they could reach her. Apparently the fox advanced faster than they expected and your mother was the only one to get to this spot where an emergency medical station had been set up. She wasn't a medical ninja, she only knew the basics of combat first aid but it seemed that she had read up on the c-section procedure and was able to pull off the surgery well enough that you survived, despite the official 'fact' that you were born about a month or so prematurely. In that report your mother was written up as a true hero of Konoha. An unmarried women from a lost land that found a new life for herself here in Konoha as a child who gave up her life so that her unborn son and new home would survive."

Tsunade paused for a moment looking at the two young shinobi for a moment before she continued.

"Unfortunately that official report that is very well guarded is actually a lie. I simply can't give you any real details yet but I can tell you that yes your mother was married and that you were actually not born prematurely and she did nothing along the lines of performing any sort of emergency c-section on herself. That whole distortion was put in to a well guarded secret report simply to be another layer to help hide the identity of your parents and further protect you, mostly by fictitiously moving your due date up a month to distance you from your real due date. I can tell you that both of your parents died because of the Kyuubi attack. Please keep that horrible fictional story in your mind and always remember that it was nothing more than a ruse to help hide you along with a whole slew of other protections set up by the Third. Although knowing your mother if it had been necessary, she would have done exactly what the report outlined. As I said before, she was an incredibly strong woman. I am reasonably certain that the fake report has been accessed at least three times by people not from Konoha, people who would have killed you if they knew the real truth about who your parents are. Now I am serious that you should keep that in mind and do not pester Hinata about this. She is very upset that her knowing this secret could damage the friendship the two of you share."

"Hinata?" Naruto looked to the pale eyed girl.

"Y-yes, Naruto-kun?" She replied with a very visible tremor to go along with her stutter.

"Do you think this secret is really that important?"

"I-I..." Hinata paused for a moment looking up from the ground to steal a quick glance at the Hokage before turning and locking her eyes onto Narutos bright blue eyes. "Yes. Yes, it easily is that important to this day. Right now at this very moment there is nothing I would like more than to share what I know of the truth with you but Lady Tsunade is correct, for now it is better that it stays secret."

Naruto stared at her for a very long moment before slowly turning to Tsunade.

"O.k. If Hinata says it's that important than I can accept that."

"Are you absolutely certain? You're not going to ask her about it later are you?" Tsunade asked.

"Yes. I am certain and I promise I won't bother her about it. I trust her."

"O.k. That's good. Your mother would have approved." Tsunade paused for a moment before continuing softly. "She did leave a note for you."

Tsunades voice was barely over a whisper as she pulled a folded piece of paper out that had obviously been through a lot of abuse. Both Naruto and Hinata stared at their leader in stunned silence.

-ooo-

"My darling Naruto.

I am so sorry that I will not be there for you. If I thought there was any other way to save the village I would not have allowed this to be done to you. I know your father will not survive the night and I will not live much longer, so you will probably be alone. We tried to make arrangements so that wouldn't happen but there are forces in the village that will probably prevent our wishes so your father set up something of a backup as well that we mostly hope will never be needed but if it ever is we should be able to explain things better. I wish I had more time to tell you how much we both loved you but I can feel the last of my strength fading. I wish things could have been different. Please take care of yourself and I hope you can someday find it in your heart to forgive me and your father for leaving you alone. That was certainly not our plan. Please believe me, we loved you so very much."

-ooo-

Naruto blinked a few times fighting back the tears. The clearing was silent as he studied the crumpled piece of paper. The words were obviously written by someone barely able to keep their hand steady. There were dark and light stains. After a few moments he realized that the dark stains had to be his mothers blood. His knuckles turned white and the tears finally flowed. A few drops hit the paper and he realized that the light stains must be from his mothers tears.

A moment later he felt a pair of arms envelope him into a strong hug as Tsunade pulled him close. He looked up into Tsunades soft brown eyes and saw that the Hokage was crying as well. An instant later he felt a soft touch on his shoulder and looking over he saw that it was from Hinata as she had placed her hand there. He was surprised to see that his young friend had tears in her eyes as well.

"O.K. Enough of this. It's almost lunch time. I say we all head off to Ichiraku's for lunch, my treat!" Tsunade stated with surprising force.

"Yeah, that sounds really good right now." Naruto answered with an uncharacteristic soft voice.

As they started walking back to the village Naruto felt a hand take his own. Looking over in surprise he saw that it was Hinata. Although she was turning red as he looked at her she gave him a soft smile.

"Th-thanks Hinata, you really are just about the best friend I have." He said softly.

Hinata said nothing in reply but managed to give his had a slight squeeze before her eyes locked onto the ground before them.

Tsunade smiled herself as she watched the two of them out of the corner of her eye. It seemed, for now at least, that the time for tears was done.


End file.
